I recently asked three development executives, (all have been in the business for over a decade) "what is the biggest difference between the industry now compared to when they first started?" All three had the same answer Its harder to get a movie made. Notice they didn't say, "It's harder to get a good movie made." That was the standard answer years ago. Now it's simply hard to get any movie made. Even through more movies are getting made than a decade ago, right now, in 1999, many of the major studios are cutting back on their slate of films. Disney, for instance, has consolidated its production arms into one big entity that is now overseen by Joe Roth. Recently Roth declared that he expects to have a slate of only fifteen films this year. Disney is not the only one cutting back. We won't even get into a deep discussion about Universal, where seemingly there's a daily report about yet another project they've put into turn around.

What's happening is that the studios are becoming more picky about who they work with, what they develop, what they make, what they release, and how they market it. Expensive production deals with producers, actors, and directors, consummated years ago, are not being renewed. Budgets for movies that were allowed to spiral upwards are being thrown back across the desk, or the project is being killed completely. Actors that would normally get a huge fee, plus a percentage of the movie's backend, are being told by the studios to cut their upfront fees and live or die with their profit participation. In other words, live dangerously, just like the studio backing the film. The bottom line is that the studios are trying to maximize their long term profits, by minimizing their short term risks. The fact is, studios are towing the corporate line more than ever before. Paramount for instance doesn't seem to be making any movies unless they can share the burden of the budget with another entity, usually another studio. I've noticed that Joe Dolgen, the bean counter at Paramount, is popping up at the studio's movie premieres as often as any creative executive. His picture shows up in the trades right next to Patrick Stewart or Jim Carrey. Indeed, everything has gotten so serious that Joe Roth actually walked away from doing Adam Sandler's next movie (after the studio raked in huge, mega profits on "Waterboy") because the overall package pitched to him by Sandler's handlers just didn't make financial sense to the studio. Ten years ago, any studio chief in town would have dove into that pool, fully dressed, and worried later whether any of the money in his wallet could survive the plunge.

So what does this mean to you, the average working or aspiring screenwriter? Bad news, if you ask me. With more money at stake, and less studio movies being made and developed, the executives at the studio level are playing it safe. They are going to the same small pool of proven studio screenwriters for all their open writing assignments. They are buying pitches only from the same group of people who have credits (again it doesn't matter if the films were any good, in the "new" Hollywood getting anything made earns you a stripe).

Yes, the screenwriters who are getting all the work are the ones who probably don't need it. Case in point, I know one Producer who had a project to pitch to the studio, and rather than attach a writer that could work on the project immediately, attached a huge screenwriter that already had so many projects in the pipeline that it was understood by all parties involved that this huge screenwriter wouldn't be touching this pitch, if sold, for at least a year. The pitch did indeed sell (probably because the screenwriter was attached) and the producer waited for over two years before the screenwriter wrote a word for his script (the project is still in development).

So what do you do if you're trying to get your first writing break? What should you be writing if your house payment is due and the last payment on the last step on your last writing assignment was over two month ago? Well, I say, look to the marketplace for the answers. I'm not talking about what movie audiences are looking to see, I'm talking about what studio executives are looking to buy. In Hollywood, like anywhere else, you can't buy love. But many believe you can buy job security. Studio executives spend their money on projects that they can attach a "name" actor or a "name" director. So if you're a writer thinking about what to write or you're about to start that all important rewrite on your script, think about the studio executives out there who are going to be looking at your project with these words in mind: "Can I get Tom Cruise interested in this?" "Will Steven Spielberg want to do another World War II drama?" "Is Tom Hanks interested in doing a romantic comedy or is he trying to fit in a drama next?" "Can this script get Jan DeBont back into the groove he was in with Speed' and Twister.'"

If you could, for a moment, forget about the usual stuff you hear, "write what you know;" "write something that you would go see in the movie theater," etc. That stuff still applies, but more than ever as a writer what is important is that you write about characters that actors want to play. You must write a story that a director can start envisioning in his head the moment he reads, "FADE IN." If the people making the decisions about what is getting made in this town are basing their decisions on what they can sell, then increasingly they are driven to insure their products get to the marketplace with actors and directors that will enhance the product itself or help in selling it. You as a writer need to give them something they can work with.

Take "Titanic" for instance. Fox studios (and Paramount) was betting the farm two years ago, not on the story of a shipwreck that happened decades ago. They had their money riding with James Cameron and his proven track record as a film maker of quality movies that were profitable. And who did James Cameron bet on? He thought that Leonardo DiCaprio was talented enough, hip enough, and attractive enough to bring in a young audience that might otherwise have ignored the film. At the end of the day, everyone went home a winner.

Take another movie, any movie -- let's say, "Rounders." Even though the script that Miramax went into production with was known at the time as a "hot property" in development circles, the overall story of a college kid who was a poker-idiot-savant was kinda dull and kinda slow. Its insider's feel of the game probably cut off any chance the project had of capturing a main stream audience. So why did it get made? I think because ultimately a proven director, John Dahl ("The Last Seduction") wanted to explore the world of poker. And two "hot" actors, Matt Damon and Edward Norton were dying to see what it was like to be get paid to gamble. The fact that "Rounders" folded at the box office is beside the point. Screenwriters David Levien and Brian Koppelman get to at least brag that the movie got made.

Going in, everyone should know that being a screenwriter is Darwinian Evolution in action. If you don't learn how to hunt, gather, and adapt, you will be extinct faster than an executive at Universal. Right now the safest bet is writing a movie with characters that actors want to play and writing a story that a big time director wants to shoot. If you don't agree with this, and you've come up with a different plan that you think might work better, please drop me a line. Like you, I don't want to end up selling Amway.

RICHARD FINNEY, W.G.A. Producer/Writer

In the last three years, producer/screenwriter Richard Finney has sold four pitches -- the most recent to director Steven Spielberg, titled "Alien Zoo." "Alien Zoo" is currently in development at Dreamworks with Robert Lawrence ("Clueless") attached as producer and James Bonny as cowriter.

Mr. Finney's producing partnership with Terence Michael ("If Lucy Fell" and "Fall") and their creation of Michael/Finney Productions has also met with quick success. They recently acquired the widely acclaimed novel "The Pact," written by Jodi Picoult. Jeremiah Chechik ("Benny and Joon") is attached to direct. "Perfect Little Angels," a horror-thriller based on the best-selling book by Andrew Niederman ("The Devil's Advocate") just wrapped and aired on the Fox Family Channel in November. "The Hanged Man," with director Kevin Dowling ("The Sum of Us") is in development at Avenue Pictures; "The Very Special" will star Robert Downey Jr. ("Chaplin"); and "The Soloman Organization," by author Andrew Niederman is in development for the Fox Family channel.

Finney began his screenwriting career at Hollywood Pictures in 1992, working on the project that became the film "Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters." He quickly followed that assigmnent up with pitch sales to Touchstone ("Evolution," in development at Phase One Productions), Cinema Line ("Vexers," for the producers of Anaconda) and Mel Gibson's Icon Productions ("Fire Mountain").

As a writer, Finney has also teamed with Daniel Petrie Jr. ("Beverly Hills Cop") on two separate projects -- production rewrites for the Columbia Pictures release "Maximum Risk," starring Jean Claude Van Damme, and directed by Ringo Lam. And "Ground Zero," for Castle Rock Pictures.

Finney's writing projects in active development are "The Guardian," an ABC TV movie for director Joe Dante ("Gremlins"); "Microbe," a Fox TV movie; and an adaptation of the high-tech action novel "Sunstroke" with Jeffrey Neuman and Martin Wiley ("Under Siege II") attached as producers. Writer James Bonny and Finney have recently been attached to the popular comic book "The Tenth" in association with Producer Todd Smith.

Also in development at Michael/Finney Productions is a romantic period drama, "Westport," written by Finney; "100 Girls," a sexy, provocative comedy from writer/director Michael Davis.

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